Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party)

The Minister is dressing this up as a job-creation measure. However, apart from the job losses which inevitably flow from a privatisation - there has never been one that did not involve job losses - how does the Minister answer organisations such as the Woodland League, which would argue that a country such as Switzerland which is half the size of Ireland has twice the area of forest? While we employ 11,000 in forestry, it employs 120,000 people in that area. What does the Minister say to the idea that our State assets could be used on valuable indigenous industry job creation programmes that the Minister is forfeiting by his short-term measures?

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